Date: Tuesday 2nd December 2025
Time: 12.30 – 1.30
Speakers: Prof. Tristan McKay & Anna Ludlaim
Title: Harnessing stem cell technologies and molecular phenotyping to better understand rare neurodegenerative diseases
Professor McKay has spent his career studying the underlying biology of rare neurodegenerative diseases and developing advanced therapies. He completed his doctoral training at Imperial College, followed by post-doc positions at the University of North Carolina and University of Manchester. Following progressive Faculty appointments at Bart’s and St. George’s Hospital Medical Schools he was appointed Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Manchester Met. For the last decade he has studied the molecular pathobiology of Batten and Gaucher disease using stem cell models.
Anna Ludlaim is a final year PhD student in the McKay group whose project is based on defining molecular markers that differentiate between neuronopathic and non-neuronopathic subtypes of Gaucher disease. Anna is co-supervised by Dr. Aimee Donald.
Prof. Tristan McKay & Anna Ludlaim will present new data on the CLN7 variant Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis and Gaucher disease using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell models.